It can be hard to know where to get started with automating your recruiting processes. This is why we’ve created this list of 25 things every staffing firm should automate. So you can choose the automation that will supercharge your agency’s recruitment.

Job posting and descriptions

1. Targeting job postings: Finding the right candidates often begins with the right job description and placement. Automation can strategically post jobs across multiple websites to save recruiters from manually finding suitable career boards.

2. Flagging bias: Certain wording in job descriptions (like chairman, manager, and competitive) can put off minority and female candidates. Luckily, there’s now automation software that can automatically flag language that might show unconscious bias. This prompts a recruiter to revisit the description and find alternative words that will attract a more diverse candidate pool.  

3. Parsing job descriptions: On the other hand, staffing agencies may scan through hundreds of job descriptions to find the right roles for their candidates. Automatically parsing job descriptions, to come up with a list of key criteria, can save hours.

Automated screening of candidates

4. Resume parsing: Similar to parsing job descriptions, candidates’ resumes can be scanned to find out the key information needed to assess their suitability for a role (like their experience, qualifications, and skills).

5. Automatic blinding: Software can automatically remove information that may impact a recruiter’s biases (conscious and unconscious). Features like someone’s name, age, location, or academic institution can all be removed so recruiters can make an unbiased assessment.  

6. Prequalifying chatbots: Chatbots can automatically ask candidates prequalifying questions as a screening mechanism early on in the recruitment process. Bots could also capture a candidate’s email address and phone number for easy and quick follow-up by a human recruiter.  

7. FAQ chatbots: Chatbots can also help to answer candidates’ questions or escalate to a recruiter when pre-written answers aren’t useful. Things like office hours or the average time to respond to an application can easily be answered by a chatbot.  

8. Matching  candidates to roles: Machine learning algorithms can match people to roles based on their skills and experience (parsed from their resumes). This has huge potential  to save days of work for recruiters. Time-to-hire will be dramatically reduced and, because matching is based on skill data, it can help to reduce bias.

9. Gather Credentials: This is super important for specific industries, such as healthcare. The software will send an email to a candidate one month before expiring credentials and every week until new credentials have been received.

Staffing updates and tracking

10. Updating applicant status: One commonly missed task is updating candidates from passive to active (and vice versa). This has many implications for candidate relationship management and placement.  

11. Notifications when stages change: When a key stage changes, like moving from interview to placed, everyone involved can be automatically told about it (including recruiters, hiring managers, and HR). This can help to predict and forecast staffing placement rates and also ensure smooth onboarding.      

12. Interview scheduling: Instead of going back and forth with a candidate to find a suitable time, recruiters can simply send a link to schedule an interview easily. AI virtual assistants could even take over this process to suggest suitable times and liaise with candidates to set up an interview.  

13. Interview and stage reminders: Recruiters can be automatically reminded to check in with a certain candidate based on their stage or prior to an interview. Important documents like a resume and job requirements can be sent to interviewers automatically at a set time before the interview.  

14. Candidate status updates: Nobody likes to be kept in the dark during the recruitment process. Automatically sending updates to candidates, even when unsuccessful, can show them that your agency cares and can nurture them for future roles.

Automate the first day of work

A recruitment agency’s role doesn’t stop once a candidate has been placed. Automation can help make the onboarding process as seamless and easy as possible.  

15. Automatic messaging on the first day of the contract: Liaising with your candidates on the first day of their placement can reduce no-shows and ensure they start their role with all of the information needed.  

16. Send onboarding documentation: Automation can help to gather all the relevant paperwork needed by a candidate and HR. This takes the strain out of onboarding and keeps everyone updated with the appropriate information.      

17. Reminders to call hiring manager post-placement: Checking in with a hiring manager post-placement can help you identify any issues and correct them quickly. It can also provide valuable feedback about a candidate’s suitability and performance that will influence your recruitment in the future.

Ongoing communication and feedback

There are several processes that can be automated to help you stay updated and engaged with candidates. This will nurture them long-term, so you can successfully place them time and time again. Likewise, checking in regularly with clients will build their loyalty and the likelihood of them using your recruiting firm again.  

18. Regular feedback with candidates: Sometimes, a candidate may not be happy in the placement or may encounter some other issue that impacts their satisfaction and retention. By proactively and automatically gathering feedback from candidates, recruiters can address any issues early on and optimize the talent experience.

19. Client check-ins: Retaining customers is more cost-effective than attracting new ones. If you nurture your current relationships with clients, your recruitment agency will grow exponentially. Automation can remind you to check in monthly with key accounts or can communicate automatically with them to keep relationships growing.  

20. Credential gathering: This is particularly relevant to recruiters working in sectors that require specific qualifications and credentials (like healthcare staffing). Automation can alert candidates (and other relevant parties) if their credentials are about to expire.

21. Extra communications: When it comes to candidate relationship management, every little communication can strengthen your relationship. Recruiters can be automatically nudged to send a message on key dates like a candidate’s work anniversary or birthday. A similar automation could be set up for customers.  

22. Candidate rediscovery: Sometimes a candidate isn’t suitable for a role but they still have skills and experience that are valuable to clients. Automated matching will surface these candidates for relevant roles.

Automating admin

23. Tidy your candidate email lists: Automatically clean up your database and remove any bad or ‘no email’ accounts. This will prevent failed email sends, can keep candidate information up-to-date, and flag accounts with no or incorrect information.

24. Tidy customer lists: Similar to above, customer accounts with no or incorrect contact information can be flagged for review. Again, this will prevent failed email sends and keep your customer lists updated.  

25. Automated  lead generator: Keep your recruiting firm growing by keeping your leads and pipeline updated. Recruitment automation software can automatically find prospects for your salespeople to reach out to.

Achieve more through automation

As you can see, there are many processes that can be automated in your recruitment agency. Deciding on what to implement will ultimately depend on your goals. Some agencies want to speed up time-to-fill, while others will focus on their candidate relationships. Whatever you decide on, make sure you work with a vendor who will constantly innovate and improve their automation software.

This will keep you at the forefront of the market and everything that recruitment automation can achieve.

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